when children fall down in the dirt, they do usually before they go
home make their clothes as clean as they can, for fear their parents
should chide them; and so I think should we.
Answ. This comparison is wrongly applied, if you bring it to show us
how we must do when we come to Christ. He that can make himself clean
hath no need of Christ; for the whole, the clean, and righteous have no
need of Christ, but those that are foul and sick. Physicians, you know,
if they love to be honoured, they will not bid the patients first make
themselves whole, and then come to them; no, but bid them come with
their sores all running on them, as the woman with her bloody issue
(Mark 5). And as Mary Magdalene with her belly full of devils, and the
lepers all scabbed; and that is the right coming to Jesus Christ.
Reply. Well, I hope that Christ will save me, for His promises and
mercy are very large; and as long as He hath promised to give us life,
I fear my state the less.
Answ. It is very true, Christ’s promises are very large, blessed be the
Lord for ever; and also so is His mercy; but notwithstanding all that,
there are many go in at the broad gate; and therefore I say, your
business is seriously to inquire whether you are under the first or
second covenant; for unless you are under the second, you will never be
regarded of the Lord, forasmuch as you are a sinner (Heb 8:9). And the
rather, because if God should be so good to you as to give you a share
in the second, you shall have all your sins pardoned, and for certain
have eternal life, though you have been a great sinner. But do not
expect that thou shalt have any part or share in the large promises and
mercy of God, for the benefit and comfort of thy poor soul, whilst thou
art under the old covenant; because so long thou art out of Christ,
through whom God conveyeth His mercy, grace, and love to sinners. “For
all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him amen.” Indeed, His
mercy, grace, and love are very great, but they are treasured up in
Him, “given forth in Him, through Him.” “But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us—that He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace”—but which way?—“in His kindness towards
us through Jesus Christ.”
But out of Christ thou shalt find God a just God, a sin-avenging God, a
God that will by no means spare the guilty; and be sure that every one
that is found out of Jesus Christ will be found guilty in the
judgment-day, upon whom the wrath of God shall smoke to their eternal
ruin. Now, therefore, consider of it, and take the counsel of the
Apostle, in 2 Corinthians 13:5, which is, to examine thyself whether
thou art “in the faith,” and to prove thy ownself whether thou hast
received the Spirit of Christ into thy soul, whether thou hast been
converted, whether thou hast been born again, and made a new creature,
whether thou hast had thy sins washed away in the blood of Christ,
whether thou hast been brought from under the old covenant into the
new; and do not make a slight examination, for thou hast a precious
soul either to be saved or damned.
And that thou mayest not be deceived, consider that it is one thing to
be convinced, and another to be converted; one thing to be wounded, and
another to be killed, and so to be made alive again by the faith of
Jesus Christ. When men are killed, they are killed to all things they
lived to before, both sin and righteousness, as all their old faith and
supposed grace that they thought they had. Indeed, the old covenant
will show thee that thou art a sinner, and that a great one too; but
the old covenant, the Law, will not show thee, without the help of the
Spirit, that thou are without all grace by nature; no; but in the midst
of thy troubles thou wilt keep thyself from coming to Christ by
persuading thy soul that thou art come already, and hast some grace
already. O, therefore, be earnest in begging the Spirit, that thy soul
may be enlightened, and the wickedness of thy heart discovered, that
thou mayest see the miserable state that thou art in by reason of sin
and unbelief, which is the great condemning sin; and so in a sight and
sense of thy sad condition, if God should deal with thee in severity
according to thy deservings. Do thou [now] cry to God for faith in a
crucified Christ, that thou mayest have all thy sins washed away in His
blood, and such a right work of grace wrought in thy soul that may
stand in the judgment-day. Again,
Second. In the next place, you know I told you that a man might go a
great way in a profession, and have many excellent gifts, [Second use].
so as to do many wondrous works, and yet be but under the Law; from
hence you may learn not to judge yourselves to be the children of God,
because you may have some gifts of knowledge or understanding more than
others: no, for thou mayest be the knowingest man in all the country as
to head-knowledge, and yet be but under the law, and so consequently
under the curse, notwithstanding that, 1 Corinthians 13. Now, seeing it
is so, that men may have all this and yet perish, then what will become
of those that do no good at all, and have no understanding, neither of
their own sadness, nor of Christ’s mercy? O, sad! Read with
understanding, Isaiah 27:11, “Therefore He that made them will not have
mercy on them, and He that formed them will show them no favour” (See
also 2 Thess 1:8, 9).
Now there is one thing which, for want of, most people do miscarry in a
very sad manner, and that is, because they are not able to distinguish
between the nature of the Law and the Gospel. O, people, people, your
being blinded here as to the knowledge of this is one great cause of
the ruining of many. As Paul saith, “While Moses is read,” or while the
law is discovered, “the veil is upon their heart” (2 Cor 3:15) that is,
the veil of ignorance is still upon their hearts, so that they cannot
discern either the nature of the law or the nature of the Gospel, they
being so dark and blind in their minds, as you may see, if you compare
it with Chronicles 4:3, 4. And truly I am confident, that were you but
well examined, I doubt many of you would be found so ignorant that you
would not be able to give a word of right answer concerning either the
Law or the Gospel. Nay, my friends, set the case, one should ask you
what time you spend, what pains you take, to the end you may understand
the nature and difference of these two covenants, would you not say, if
you should speak the truth, that you did not so much as regard whether
there were two or more? Would you not say, I did not think of
covenants, or study the nature of them? I thought that if I had lived
honestly, and did as well as I could, that God would accept of me, and
have mercy upon me, as He had on others. Ah, friends, this is the cause
of the ruin of thousands; for if they are blinded to this, both the
right use of the law, and also of the Gospel, is hid from their eyes,
and so for certain they will be in danger of perishing most miserably,
poor souls that they are, unless God, of His mere mercy and love, doth
rend the veil from off their hearts, the veil of ignorance, for that is
it which doth keep these poor souls in this besotted and blindfolded
condition, in which if they die they may be lamented for, but not
helped; they may be pitied, but not preserved from the stoke of God’s
everlasting vengeance.
A legal spirit.
In the next place, if you would indeed be delivered from the first into
the second covenant, I do admonish you to the observing of these
following particulars. First. Have a care that you do not content
yourselves, though you do good works—that is, which in themselves are
good. Secondly. In and with a legal spirit, which are done these ways
as followeth.
First. If you do anything commanded in Scripture, and your doing of it
do think that God is well pleased therewith, because you, as you are
religious men, do do the same. Upon this mistake was Paul himself in
danger of being destroyed; for he thought, because he was zealous, and
one of the strictest sects for religion, therefore God would have been
good unto him, and have accepted his doings, as it is clear, for he
counted them his gain (Phil 3:4-8). Now this is done thus—When a man
doth think that because he thinks he is more sincere, more liberal,
with more difficulty, or to the weakening of his estate; I say, if a
man, because of this doth think that God accepteth his labour, it is
done from an old-covenant spirit.
Again; some men think that they shall be heard because they have prayer
in their families, because they can pray long, and speak excellent
expressions, or express themselves excellently in prayer, that because
they have great enlargements in prayer, I say, that therefore to think
that God doth delight in their doings, and accept their works, this is
from a legal spirit.
Again; some men think that because their parents have been religious
before them, and have been indeed the people of God, they think if they
also do as to the outward observing of that which they learned from
their forerunners, that therefore God doth accept them; but this also
is from a wrong spirit; and yet how many are there in England at this
day that think the better of themselves merely upon that account; ay,
and think the people of God ought to think so too, not understanding
that it is ordinary for an Eli to have a Hophni and a Phinehas, both
sons of Belial; also a good Samuel to have a perverse offspring;
likewise David an Absalom. I say, their being ignorant of, or else
negligent in regarding this, they do think that because they do spring
from such and such, as the Jews in their generation did, that therefore
they have a privilege with God more than others, when there is no such
thing; but for certain, if the same faith be not in them which was in
their forerunners, to lay hold of the Christ of God in the same spirit
as they did, they must utterly perish, for all their high conceits that
they have of themselves (John 8:33-35; Matt 3:7-9).
Second. When people come into the presence of God without having their
eye upon the Divine Majesty, through the flesh and blood of the Son of
Mary, the Son of God, then also do they come before God, and do
whatsoever they do from a legal spirit, an old-covenant spirit. As, for
instance, you have some people, it is true, they will go to prayer, in
appearance very fervently, and will plead very hard with God that He
would grant them their desires, pleading their want, and the abundance
thereof; they will also plead with God His great mercy, and also His
free promises; but yet they neglecting the aforesaid body or Person of
Christ, the righteous Lamb of God, to appear before Him in, I say, in
thus doing they do not appear before the Lord no otherwise than in an
old-covenant spirit; for they go to God as a merciful Creator, and they
themselves as His creatures; not as He is, their Father in the Son, and
they His children by regeneration through the Lord Jesus. Ay, and
though they may call God their Father, in the notion—not knowing what
they say, only having learned such things by tradition—as the Pharisees
did, yet Christ will have His time to say to them, even to their faces,
as He did once to the Jews, Your father, for all this your profession,
is the devil, to their own grief and everlasting misery (John 8:44).
Third. The third thing that is to be observed, if we would not be under
the Law, or do things in a legal spirit, is this—to have a care that we
do none of the works of the holy Law of God for life, or acceptance
with Him; no, nor of the Gospel neither. To do the works of the law to
the end we may be accepted of God, or that we may please Him, and to
have our desires of Him, is to do things from a legal or old-covenant
spirit, and that is expressly laid down where it is said, “To him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt”; that is, he
appears before God through the Law, and his obedience to it (Rom
4:4,5). And again, though they be in themselves Gospel-ordinances, as
baptism, breaking of bread, hearing, praying, meditating, or the like;
yet, I say, if they be not done in the right spirit, they are thereby
used as a hand by the devil to pull thee under the Covenant of Works,
as in former times he used circumcision, which was no part of the
Covenant of Works, the Ten Commands, but a seal of the righteousness of
faith; yet, I say, they being done in a legal spirit, the soul was
thereby brought under the Covenant of Works, and so most miserably
destroyed unawares to itself, and that because there was not a right
understanding of the nature and terms of the said covenants. And so it
is now; souls being ignorant of the nature of the old covenant, do even
by their subjecting to several Gospel ordinances, run themselves under
the old covenant, and fly off from Christ, even when they think they
are acoming closer to him. O, miserable! If you would know when or how
this is done, whether in one particular or more, I shall show you as
followeth—
1. That man doth bring himself under the Covenant of Works, by Gospel
ordinances, when he cannot be persuaded that God will have mercy upon
him except he do yield obedience to such or such a particular thing
commanded in the Word. This is the very same spirit that was in the
false brethren (spoken of Acts 15; Galatians, the whole Epistle), whose
judgment was, that unless such and such things were done, “they could
not be saved.” As now-a-days we have also some that say, Unless your
infants be baptized they cannot be saved;23 and others say, unless you
be rightly baptized, you have no ground to be assured that you are
believers, or members of churches; which is so far off from being so
good as a legal spirit, that it is the spirit of blasphemy, as is
evident, because they do reckon that the Spirit, righteousness, and
faith of Jesus, and the confession thereof, is not sufficient to
declare men to be members of the Lord Jesus; when, on the other side,
though they be rank hypocrites, yet if they do yield an outward
subjection to this or that, they are counted presently communicable
members, which doth clearly discover that there is not so much honour
given to the putting on the righteousness of the Son of God as there is
given to that which a man may do, and yet go to Hell within an hour
after; nay, in the very doing of it doth shut himself for ever from
Jesus Christ.
2. Men may do things from a legal or old-covenant spirit when they
content themselves with their doing of such and such a thing, as
prayers, reading, hearing, baptism, breaking of bread, or the like; I
say, when they can content themselves with the thing done, and sit down
at ease and content because the thing is done. As, for instance, some
men being persuaded that such and such a thing is their duty, and that
unless they do do it, God will not be pleased with them, nor suffer
them to be heirs of His kingdom, they from this spirit do rush into and
do the thing, which being done, they are content, as being persuaded
that now they are without doubt in a happy condition, because they have
done such things, like unto the Pharisee, who, because he had done this
and the other thing, said therefore, in a bragging way, “Lord, I thank
thee that I am not as this publican”; for I have done thus and thus;
when, alas! the Lord give him never a good word for his labour, but
rather a reproof.
3. That man doth act from a legal spirit who maketh the strictness of
his walking the ground of his assurance for eternal life. Some men, all
the ground they have to believe that they shall be saved, it is because
they walk not so loose as their neighbours, they are not so bad as
others are, and therefore they question not but that they shall do
well. Now this is a false ground, and a thing that is verily legal, and
savours only of some slight and shallow apprehensions of the old
covenant. I call them shallow apprehensions, because they are not right
and sound, and are such as will do the soul no good, but beguile it, in
that the knowledge of the nature of this covenant doth not appear to
the soul, only some commanding power it hath on the soul, which the
soul endeavouring to give up itself unto, it doth find some peace and
content, and especially if it find itself to be pretty willing to yield
itself to its commands. And is not this the very ground of thy hoping
that God will save thee from the wrath to come? If one should ask thee
what ground thou hast to think thou shalt be saved, wouldst thou not
say, Truly, because I have left my sins, and because I am more
inclinable to do good, [Do not think that I am against the order of the
Gospel.] and to learn, and get more knowledge; I endeavour to walk in
church order, as they call it, and therefore I hope God hath done a
good work for me, and I hope will save my soul. Alas, alas! this is a
very trick of the devil to make souls build the ground of their
salvation upon this their strictness, and abstaining from the
wickedness of their former lives, and because they desire to be
stricter and stricter. Now, if you would know such a man or woman, you
shall find them in this frame—namely, when they think their hearts are
good, then they think also that Christ will have mercy upon them; but
when their corruptions work, then they doubt and scruple until again
they have their hearts more ready to do the things contained in the law
and ordinances of the Gospel. Again, such men do commonly cheer up
their hearts, and encourage themselves still to hope all shall be well,
and that because they are not so bad as the rest, but more inclinable
than they, saying, I am glad I am not as this publican, but better than
he, more righteous than he (Luke 18:11).
4. This is a legal and old-covenant spirit that secretly persuades the
soul that if ever it will be saved by Christ, if must be fitted for
Christ by its getting of a good heart and good intentions to do this
and that for Christ; I say, that the soul when it comes to Christ may
not be rejected or turned off; when in deed and in truth this is the
very way for the soul to turn itself from Jesus Christ, instead of
turning to Him; for such a soul looks upon Christ rather to be a
painted Saviour or a cypher than a very and real Saviour. Friend, if
thou canst fit thyself, what need hast thou of Christ? If thou canst
get qualifications to carry to Christ that thou mightst be accepted,
thou dost not look to be accepted in the Beloved. Shall I tell thee?
Thou art as if a man should say, I will make myself clean, and then I
will go to Christ that He may wash me; or like a man possessed, that
will first cast the devils out of himself, and then come to Christ for
cure from Him. Thou, must, therefore, if thou wilt so lay hold of
Christ as not to be rejected by Him; I say, thou must come to Him as
the basest in the world, more fit to be damned, if thou hadst thy
right, than to have the least smile, hope, or comfort from Him. Come
with the fire of Hell in thy conscience, come with thy heart hard,
dead, cold, full of wickedness and madness against thy own salvation;
come as renouncing all thy tears, prayers, watchings, fastings; come as
a blood-red sinner; do not stay from Christ till thou hast a greater
sense of thy own misery, nor of the reality of God’s mercy; do not stay
while thy heart is softer and thy spirit in a better frame, but go
against thy mind, and against the mind of the devil and sin, throw
thyself down at the foot of Christ, with a halter about thy neck, and
say, Lord Jesus, hear a sinner, a hard-hearted sinner, a sinner that
deserveth to be damned, to be cast into Hell; and resolve never to
return, or to give over crying unto Him, till thou do find that He hath
washed thy conscience from dead works with His blood virtually, and
clothed thee with His own righteousness, and made thee complete in
Himself; this is the way to come to Christ.
THE USE OF THE NEW COVENANT
Now a few words to the second doctrine, and so I shall draw towards a
conclusion.
FIRST USE. The doctrine doth contain in it very much comfort to thy
[The use, for the second doctrine]. soul who art a new-covenant man, or
one of those who are under the new covenant. There is, First, pardon of
sin; and, Second, the manifestation of the same; and, Third, as power
to cause thee to persevere through faith to the very end of thy life.
First, There is, first, pardon of sin, which is not in the old
covenant; for in that there is nothing but commands; and if not obeyed,
condemned. O, but there is pardon of sin, even of all thy sins, against
the first and second covenant, under which thou art, and that freely
upon the account of Jesus Christ the righteousness, He having in thy
name, nature, and in the room of thy person, fulfilled all the whole
law in Himself for thee, and freely giveth it unto thee. O, though the
law be a ministration of death and condemnation, yet the Gospel, under
which thou art, is the ministration of life and salvation (2 Cor
3:6-9). Though they that live and die under the first covenant, God
regardeth them not (Heb 8:9). Yet they that are under the second are as
the apple of His eye (Deu 32:10; Psa 17:8; Zech 2:8). Though they that
are under the first, the Law, are “called to blackness, and darkness,
and tempest, the sound of a trumpet,” and a burning mountain, which
sight was so terrible, that Moses said, “I exceedingly fear and quake”
(Heb 12:18-22). “But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company
of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn,” whose
names “are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus,” to blessed Jesus, “the
Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that
speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Heb 12:22-24). Even
forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7).
Second, The covenant that thou art under doth allow of repentance in
case thou chance to slip or fall by sudden temptation; but the law
allows of none (Rev 2:5; Gal 3:10). The covenant that thou art under
allows thee strength also; but the law is only a sound of words,
commanding words, but no power is given by them to fulfill the things
commanded (Heb 12:19). Thou that art under this second, art made a son;
but they that art under that first, are slaves and vagabonds (Gen
4:12). Thou that art under this, hast a Mediator, that is to stand
between justice and thee; but they under the other, their mediator is
turned an accuser, and speaketh most bitter things against their souls
(1 Tim 2:5; John 5:45). Again; the way that thou hast into Paradise is
a new and living way—mark, a living way; but they that are under the
old covenant, their way into Paradise is a killing and destroying way
(Heb 10:20; Gen 3:24). Again; thou has the righteousness of God to
appear before God withal; but they under the old covenant have nothing
but the righteousness of the Law, which Paul counts dirt and dung (Phil
3:7-9). Thou hast that which will make thee perfect, but the other will
not do so—“The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a
better hope did,” which is the Son of God, “by the which we draw nigh
unto God” (Heb 7:19).
Third, The new covenant promiseth thee a new heart, as I said before;
but the old covenant promiseth none; and a new spirit, but the old
covenant promiseth none (Eze 36:26). The new covenant conveyeth faith,
but the old one conveyeth none (Gal 3). Through the new covenant the
love of God is conveyed into the heart; but through the old covenant
there is conveyed none of it savingly through Jesus Christ. Romans 5.
The new covenant doth not only give a promise of life, but also with
that the assurance of life, but the old one giveth none; the old
covenant wrought wrath in us and to us, but the new one worketh love
(Rom 4:15; Gal 5:6). Thus much for the first use.